Chapter Seven: Train Ride of Unify (The Untold Story of Isabella Lestrange)

Regulus Black

She arrived back at the compartment a little while later, resuming her seat between Evan and Regulus. She was pleased to see that their discussion on the Dark Lord had already ended and now they were discussing qudditch, again. She felt a nudge in her side and looked up to find Regulus staring into her sparkling, blue eyes. He smirked upon seeing she noticed him and used his head to indicate the compartment door. She offered him a smile in return and they both excused themselves for a moment before stepping outside of the compartment.

While Regulus was a school year below her, they both were actually quite close in age, being only three months younger than Isabella.

“How was your summer?” Regulus asked her as he leaned against the wall. He brushed his medium, straight, dark brown hair out of his face as he smiled at her, waiting intently for her response.

“Oh it was quite pleasant,” she offered pushing her own hair behind her ear. “You know how Rodolphus and Rabastan can be though. They seemed to always make the summer interesting. We went to France for a few weeks and it was wonderful!” She smiled at him and laughed lightly at the memories. Her brothers always knew how to keep her entertained, even if the rest of Hogwarts thought they were ‘evil’. “How was your summer? Relaxing I hope.”

He returned the smile, but shook his head lightly, allowing his hair to grace his face again, before he pushed it gently back. “No. Summer at my house is never relaxing, especially with a brother in Gryffindor.” His eyes narrowed as he said his last few words. “Mother was furious with him. She finally blasted his name off the tapestry. Serves him right; he ran away from home within the first few weeks of summer break, probably to that boy Potter’s house.”

Isabella didn’t know how to respond to that. Regulus had always been quite open to her about his family problems and the two of them rarely kept secrets from one another. But this was big, whether or not Regulus realized it. She frowned, thinking of Sirius running away from home. He certainly belonged in Gryffindor; he had so much bravery—something she never possessed.

He noticed her frown and wondered if she was sad that Sirius had been disowned, but then, why would see care? “I was wondering,” he started slowly, choosing his words, “if you would be so kind as to accompany me on a picnic this Saturday at on the grounds.”

She realized it wasn’t so much a question and more of a demanding request, but she nodded her head and let a “yes,” escape through her perfect teeth and out of her rosy lips.

He smirked again. “Excellent. Shall I meet you in the Common Room just before lunch?” he asked, charmingly, their previous discussion of summer and Sirius left forgotten.

“That sounds find,” she replied giving him a smile. He gestured back towards the compartment and the two of them entered, sitting back in their original seats.

Isabella’s brothers looked up at her entrance, puzzled to where she had gone off two, but nobody said anything about it as the train slowed down and pulled into the station.

As the train stopped, the students quickly exited their compartment and headed towards the carriages as they heard, “Firs’ years ov’r her’, firs’ years ov’r her’” a few meters away.

Rabastan, Rodolphus, Isabella, and Lucius climbed into a carriage.

“So where did you go off to with Regulus before, Isabella,” Rabastan asked her curiously from his seat next to her. Across from her Lucius and Rodolphus looked at up at her, waiting patiently for her answer.

“We merely left to talk about our summers,” she answered kindly. Rodolphus laughed at her response.

“If that was all you were talking about,” he started, “then you would have just discussed it in our compartment.”

“Fine,” she continued, “he also asked me to go on a picnic with him over the weekend.” ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘he didn’t exactly “ask” it was more like insist.’

“How romantic,” laughed Lucius. Rabastan and Rodolphus just simply smirked as the carriage came to a stop.

The four of them climbed out of their carriage and headed into the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony.

Throughout the ceremony and all of dinner, Isabella could feel Sirius and James alternatively glaring at her.

By the time it was all over, she hastily stood up and rushed out of the hall, muttering to her brothers that she was tired and desperately wished to get to her dorms and sleep.

As she exited the hall, she saw that Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter were discussing something by the staircase. Upon seeing her, they all silenced themselves and watched her carefully.

“Hello,” Isabella greeted, no longer bothering with each of their names. ‘It’s not like they want me to say their names anyways,’ she thought to herself.

Remus greeted her warmly with a “hello Isabella!” but no one else spoke at all.

After a moments silence, Sirius, James, and Peter turned to leave. “Remus, aren’t you coming?” James asked as they headed up the stairs.

“I’ll be their in a moment, James. Don’t worry; I can take care of myself just fine.” James rolled his eyes at Remus’ comment, but did not say anything as the three of them marched up the stairs.

“Why Remus? Why?” Isabella asked, as she covered her face with her hands. Her kind voice showed signs of frustration and sadness.

“Well,” Remus began hesitantly. “It’s because of your family. He’s tried so hard to escape from that kind of background and being around you would only leave his efforts in vain.”

“I’m not like my family, Remus,” was all Isabella managed to say in response.

“I know you are not, but Sirius is just having a hard time seeing past that.” As he spoke, Isabella noticed how pale and sickly he looked. His voiced revealed how tired he was and school had yet to even have become. Isabella was left puzzled.

“Does he not realize that not all Slytherins are evil? And that he shouldn’t judge someone solely based on their house or family?” Isabella was close to tears as she questioned Remus.

Before Remus got a chance to answer her, the Great Hall doors burst open, to reveal a large crowd of Slytherin boys. Isabella turned around and looked at Rabastan, Rodolphus, Evan, Severus, Lucius, Regulus, and Michael staring in confusion at her and Remus.

Remus gave a short “goodbye” to Isabella, before turning and walking up the steps.

“Hey guys,” Isabella greeted as she looked at the puzzled Slytherins in front of her.

“Why were you talking to that Gryffindork?” Lucius asked childishly cutting the silence away.

“Oh, we were just discussing classes. You see I’m really worried about how Potions is going to go this year and Re-, uh, I mean, he was just informing me that it we’ll not get into the extremely difficult stuff until at least a month from now,” Isabella tried to explain, hoping that the others would believe her.

Rodolphus let out a laugh and several of the others imitated him. “Count on our Ella to worry about school before classes have even started. The others laughed more, before following Rodolphus and Lucius back to the Common Room. Isabella sighed as she walked in between Regulus and Rabastan. ‘Uniting Slytherin and Gryffindor is next to impossible,’ she thought, as she let another sigh escape her red lips.